Bloomberg Claims Lack of Union Contracts Will Help Next Mayor

Mayor Michael Bloomberg discusses how municipal economic and fiscal policies have helped the city challenges that could derail continued progress.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s critics have long argued he is leaving his successor with a giant fiscal mess because his administration has failed to negotiate new contracts with all of New York City’s public-employee unions — but Bloomberg on Tuesday insisted that he is handing the incoming mayor an “unprecedented opportunity” to win pension and health care changes.

“Thankfully, my successor will enter negotiations with enormous leverage, because union leaders will have gone about four years without new contracts – which has never happened before,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a speech in Brooklyn, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. “And they will not be willing to wait another four years for new contracts.”

Mr. Bloomberg, who will step down on Dec. 31 after 12 years as the city’s chief executive, said his administration’s inability to negotiate any contracts puts the next mayor in a “position of strength” to negotiate salaries along with pension and health care reforms.

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